1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to electrical connectors that employ terminal position assurance members to insure that all terminals are properly positioned in a connector housing. This invention also relates to electrical connectors that employ guiding members to guide and align male terminals during mating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Terminal position assurance members (TPA) are commonly used on electrical connectors, especially on electrical connectors used in the automotive industry. A terminal position assurance member is a movable member that can be moved into its proper position only if all of the terminals in the connector are in their fully inserted position. A variant of a terminal position assurance member is a terminal position assist member, which moves the terminals into a completely inserted position. Either form can also back up or prevent disengagement of a latches that hold terminals in an electrical connector housing.
In applications, such as automotive applications, individual electrical connectors can include many terminals attached to wires in a harness. The electrical connector used in these applications is commonly used on a receptacle connector, or a connector that includes female or socket terminals, that are connected to a pin header including printed circuit board pins. In these applications, a terminal position assurance member is commonly used with the receptacle connector. A terminal position assurance member used with a receptacle connector can be mounted on the mating face of the connector. The front mounted TPA can include a front panel with openings and projections, extending from the front panel into a terminal position assurance position beside the housing latches securing the terminal in the housing. Pins in the mating header enter the mating face of the receptacle connector through openings in the front mounted TPA. A TPA of this type can be used on a male or plug connector when two cables are to be attached.
Although in many applications, only the female electrical connector employs a TPA, a TPA is also employed in male electrical connectors when both the male and female electrical connector employs crimp snap terminals to connect wires extending from two or more harnesses into both of the mating connectors.
In many motor vehicle and other applications, a large number of wires must be connected in densely packed connectors containing a large number of terminals. In such applications a relative high mating force is required. Often one connector includes a bolt and the other includes a nut to provide mechanical assistance for overcoming these high mating forces. In certain densely populated prior art connectors pin guides are used to align pins during mating to prevent stubbing and damage to the terminals. These pin guides can also serve as pin protectors to prevent damage to the terminals during shipping.
Although each of these separate features is employed in prior art electrical connectors there is still the problem of including all of these desirable features is a densely populated assembly. In applications, such as motor vehicles, size and space are not unlimited and a large number of features must often be included within a relatively small electrical connector assembly.